The manufacture of shirts has changed from a wholly hand manipulated, machine sewing operation to a series of work stations where parts of the garment are made in a more-or-less semiautomated manner. These parts are then assembled in a hand manipulated, machine sewing operation. This change has reduced the labor content of shirts so that much of the manufacturing operation has returned to the better developed countries from underdeveloped countries where labor costs are quite low.
Perhaps the most successful semi-automatic work station is a machine that sets a pocket blank on a shirt panel. Exemplary state of the art pocket setting machines are found in publications of applicant's assignee. These machines comprise a smooth stainless steel horizontal table on which a shirt blank is placed, a die blade where the pocket blank is placed by the machine operator, a folding group for tucking the edges of the pocket blank under the die blade, a sewing head, a transfer clamp that is moved by an x-y positioner and suitable electronic controls to actuate the die blade, the folding group, the x-y positioner and the sewing machine at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner. The machine operator places a shirt panel in an appropriate position on the table under the die blade and puts the pocket blank under clips on the die blade. The machine is actuated so the die blade moves downwardly against the shirt panel and the folding group moves against the die blade, tucks the edges of the pocket blank under the die blade and then lifts out of the way. The transfer clamp moves to a position above the die blade and pushes the pocket blank and the shirt panel against the table. The die blade retracts and the transfer clamp is moved by the x-y positioner to a location under the needle of the sewing head. The sewing head drives the needle as the x-y positioner moves the transfer clamp in a predetermined path so the stitch pattern is as desired. While sewing is going on, the machine operator assembles another shirt panel and pocket blank. The sewing head cuts the thread from the assembled pocket and shirt panel and the process repeats.
Some shirt designs include a pocket flap sewn to the shirt panel at a location above the open top of the pocket. The pocket flap may incorporate a fastener, such as a button or snap, to secure the pocket flap to the pocket. Until very recently, pocket flaps were manually sewn to the shirt. This requires a series of separate operations: (1) the shirt panel is marked in some fashion to designate the location of the pocket flap, (2) the shirt panel having the pocket sewn thereon is transported to a manual work station, (3) the pocket flap is delivered to the same manual work station and (4) the flap is manually sewn to the shirt panel.
There has recently been introduced a machine to set a pocket flap on a shirt panel as an adjunct to a pocket setting operation. In this device, a complicated mechanism is provided on the transfer clamp of the pocket setting machine at a location above, but adjacent, the open top of the pocket. The machine operator puts a pocket blank in the work holder and the folding group tucks the edges of the pocket blank under the die blade. The transfer clamp moves to the work holder and the pocket flap is placed in a holder on the transfer clamp. The transfer clamp is moved by an x-y positioner to the sewing head where the pocket is sewn to the shirt panel. After the pocket is sewn, and with the shirt panel stationary, the pocket flap is moved downwardly toward the open top of the pocket by an assembly of air cylinders to its normal position above the pocket and then sewn. While the sewing is going on, the machine operator assembles another shirt panel and pocket blank. The sewing head cuts the thread from the assembled pocket and shirt panel and the process repeats.
This mechanism is complicated and expensive because the flap blank is moved from its retracted position on the transfer clamp to its normal position relative to the pocket by a complicated mechanism using a series of air cylinders. In addition, there is always a positioning problem when moving a work holder with air cylinders so there is always an adjustment problem leading to poor quality workmanship because the pocket flaps are prone to be mispositioned relative to the pocket. In addition, when switching from one style to another, the mechanism for holding and moving the pocket flap may require replacement or adjustment.